Total Newb: How small is useless?

[Scooby074]

But the BX is a mediocre lawnmower at best. Great on sloped lawns with its 4wd however, but a lousy cut. The BX is sort of a jack of all trades, but sometimes its lack of height, weight and power when compared to larger machines make it seem a bit of a toy... That said, Ive gotten lots of work out of mine.. and made a bit of cash too.

At the end of this season I got a slightly ZD326.. now THATS a lawnmower

 

[RoyJackson]

All good posts and suggestions.
I'll add one: expand your search beyond Kubota. There are a number of nice Deere CUTs from the late 1980's to late 1990's. For your tasks and acreage, a Deere 855 would be a good fit. If you're OK with a gear transmission, a 770 would work well too. And, if you don't mind going a bit bigger, you'll find 790's in your price range.
I'm sure the are great choices from Ford/New Holland too, but I'm not familiar enough with their older models to suggest any.

 

[two_bit_score]

All good posts and suggestions.
I'll add one: expand your search beyond Kubota. There are a number of nice Deere CUTs from the late 1980's to late 1990's. For your tasks and acreage, a Deere 855 would be a good fit. If you're OK with a gear transmission, a 770 would work well too. And, if you don't mind going a bit bigger, you'll find 790's in your price range.
I'm sure the are great choices from Ford/New Holland too, but I'm not familiar enough with their older models to suggest any.

Roy,
he's on Vancouver island with only a Kubota dealer locally on the island. That being, I can see him limiting his scope to Kubota.

 

[kiotiken]

All good posts and suggestions.
I'll add one: expand your search beyond Kubota. There are a number of nice Deere CUTs from the late 1980's to late 1990's. For your tasks and acreage, a Deere 855 would be a good fit. If you're OK with a gear transmission, a 770 would work well too. And, if you don't mind going a bit bigger, you'll find 790's in your price range.
I'm sure the are great choices from Ford/New Holland too, but I'm not familiar enough with their older models to suggest any.

Not that many 855's available and he's much better to go for the 955 since it would be about the same price. They were close in price when they were new which is one of the reasons there aren't many 855's compared to 955's. I liked my 955, but couldn't handle the amount of time and effort I had to put into it to keep it going. You might find a good one, but they're all 13 + years old now so you have to be careful.

Roy,
he's on Vancouver island with only a Kubota dealer locally on the island. That being, I can see him limiting his scope to Kubota.

Vancouver island is a big (and beautiful) place and has some larger populated areas including Victoria and an overall population of 750,000 people. I guarantee there's more than just Kubota to chose from (at least in the used market) and I to suggest he broaden his search even if in the end he still ends up with a Kubota.

 

[kiotiken]

Here you go.

Tractor Time Equipment - Vancouver Island Kioti Dealership - YouTube

 

[dochockin]

Thanks for all the replies! Awesome!

Our situation here on Vancouver Island is a bit unusual... It's a big island, with a fair amount of people, but the geography dictates that it's almost 2-dimensional; most of the towns (all towns of any size) are along the east coast. Locally I have one dealer, who sells Kubota/New Holland. The closest Kioti dealer is 1.5 hours away. Tractor Time (suggested above) is 3 hours away. The closest John Deere dealer is on the mainland, which means increased costs for shipping or going to pick up (8+ hour round trip, with a $150+ Ferry charge). So we are limited. I have been scouring the used listings, but not much comes up... a few classic tractors (priced in the $3-4K range) and a few scams (send money to me and I'll ship you a tractor!).

In any case it does limit our options.

I appreciate all the feedback, it all helps with the learning curve.

Cheers!

 

[wolftree]

I believe I would lean more towards a "B" series because of used implement availablity for that size tractor. There are just more implements of the compact tractor size and implements are what do the work. You can grow with the "B" series, finding a used bargain here and there. For the BX you are looking at almost everything having to be new, just because there are not as many tractors or implements around yet.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

small bx are awesome machines as long as you know it's limitations. Can do many tasks more nimbly than a larger tractor.

Just make sure one of your neighbors has a bigger tractor to come pull you out of the muck when you get stuck. It is a pain having a belly mower when you are doing rough ground work.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I would agree with the advice to look at something compairable to the JD 790/3005. In the Kubota line it would be an L series about 25-28 hp. B/BX sounds small to me for what you want to do...

 

[bcp]

I believe I would lean more towards a "B" series because of used implement availablity for that size tractor. There are just more implements of the compact tractor size and implements are what do the work. You can grow with the "B" series, finding a used bargain here and there. For the BX you are looking at almost everything having to be new, just because there are not as many tractors or implements around yet.

Almost all standard Cat 1 implements work on a modern BX. Older ones, I've heard, needed Cat 0, which is rare to find used.

Bruce